Oil industry without a favorite among presidential front-runners

OIL INDUSTRY WITHOUT A FAVORITE AMONG PRESIDENTIAL FRONT-RUNNERS: Faced with the prospect of backing either Republican Donald Trump or Democrat HillaryClinton, somein the oil industry find themselves looking for a third option. As Pro's Elana Schor reports, the industry typically donates to Republicans — and it has given heavily to Sen. Ted Cruz who has a narrow path the nomination — but this year's GOP front-runner has only taken $9,000 directly from oil and gas interests, farless than the $250,000 Clinton has accepted. An industry source wondered, "Is there a Door Number Three?"

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Trump's words don't give the oil patch any cheer: Trump has skimped on policy details in his primary run, but what he has said does not thrill oil and gas interests. Trump has backed ethanol; he has promised to preserve federal land for hunting and fishing, which suggests he would keep it closed for energy exploration; and he has attacked Cruz as being in the pocket of big oil. And while he's expressed some positions the industry might like — calling climate change a hoax that the government shouldn't touch, for one — his unpredictability leaves the industry nervous.

But Clinton is hardly an alternative: Yanked to the left by a strident primary challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton came out against the Keystone XL pipeline, expressed relief that the Atlantic had been removed from Interior's recent off-shore drilling leasing plan, and promised to produce tough rules for hydraulic fracking, all of which make the oil industry cringe. Still, Clinton has a reputation as a centrist that gives the industry some hope. "Does she move to the center?" American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard asked. "That's where you win the election."

HAPPY THURSDAY! I'm your host Eric Wolff, and I'm sitting here with some homemade raw cookie dough and lovin' it. Some ME writers have a glass of Scotch, but me? Raw cookie dough every time. If you have an awesome cookie recipe, send it and your energy tips, quips, and comments to ewolff@politico.com, or follow us on Twitter @ericwolff, @Morning_Energy, and @POLITICOPro.

MCCARTHY, SNYDER TO TESTIFY IN THIRD ACT OF FLINT HEARING DRAMA: After months of public battles over who is to blame for the lead contamination crisis in Flint, Mich., two top decision-makers take the hot seat this morning at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The pairing of GOP Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy at the witness table gives both Republicans and Democrats shots at their favorite targets — and could allow committee members to avoid highlighting the errors of one of their own.

Emails: EPA's McCarthy told staff Flint could 'get big quickly': The EPA prepared the ground for McCarthy's appearance, first with a Washington Post op-ed earlier this week, then with the release of 1,200 pages of emails Wednesday afternoon pertaining to the crisis under the Freedom of Information Act Wednesday afternoon. The records show that McCarthy saw the potential for the situation in Flint to spin out of control after a pediatrician’s study linking children’s lead levels with the water switch caught top headquarters officials’ attention in late September. “This situation has the opportunity to get very big very quickly,” McCarthy wrote in a Sept. 26 email asking staffers to get to work. But the correspondence also shows that top leaders were mindful of political faultlines as they charted their response. “There will be some fraughtness with any of our intervention options, especially given the dynamic between the city and state over Flint’s financial condition, let alone other dynamics,” EPA’s No. 2, Stan Meiberg, said in an email later that day. McCarthy’s written testimony argues her agency’s response was hampered because the state was “intransigent, misleading and contentious” in its interactions with her agency.

In his written testimony, Snyder will call on lawmakers to approve a Senate deal for Flint aid. Then he will chart the same course he did in his State of the State address in January: Accepting responsibility, while underscoring that there were failures at every step along the way. “We are taking responsibility and taking action in Michigan, and that is absolutely essential here in Washington, too," Snyder says. But the governor’s appearance — Snyder dodged initial requests to appear before Congress offering to testify last month — isn’t enough for the committee’s Democrats. They asked the Republican to order 15 of his current and former staffers to cooperate with committee requests.

GOP blockade cracking? Eight Republican Senators will meet with Garland, or have indicated a willingness to meet with him, despite weeks of Republican declarations that the Senate wouldn't give the time of day to any Obama pick. They include Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe, along with Sens. Orrin Hatch, Jeff Flake, Kelly Ayotte, Mark Kirk, Susan Collins, and Rob Portman." Many GOP Senators from blue and purple states are jumping ship from the leaky McConnell blockade because at some point reelection is every man and woman for themselves," Paul Bledsoe, a former member of the Clinton White House, told ME.

FERCIN' 9 TO 5, WHAT A WAY TO MAKE A LIVIN': Judge Garland may have pulled himself out of presiding over the Petro Star v. FERC lawsuit but it doesn’t mean the agency won’t get any attention this morning — there's a monthly commission meeting, after all! That said, we’re not exactly expecting any fireworks. The commission leaders are slated to get what has become an annual briefing from its enforcement staff on the “state” of the energy markets. If past years are any indication, the presentation is likely to be a decent chunk of the session. As part of the agenda, regulators are also opening a new rulemaking docket on requirements for small power facilities, and is expected to follow-up on a proposed rule aimed at ensuring that faults on the electric grid can be differentiated from stable power swings. The commissioners will meet at 888 First St. N.E. starting at 10 a.m.

DRINKING WATER AMENDMENTS SWATTED DOWN IN BUDGET COMMITTEE: Among two dozen Democratic amendments defeated in the House Budget Committee vote on a federal budget on Wednesday were a pair intended to help cope with lead-tainted water. Rep. Debbie Dingell proposed an amendment to provide aid to Flint, while Rep. Ted Lieu offered an amendment to increase spending on drinking water and to fight childhood lead exposure. The budget passed out of committee 20-16 mostly on party lines.

THE PADDLE

Not exactly Flintian levels of lead, but Newark schools' water is leaded: A recent test of water at Newark public schools found that 12 percent of samples taken between 2012 and 2015 had levels of lead that exceeded federal guidelines, POLITICO New Jersey's Linh Tat reports. While health experts say that no amount of lead in the water is safe, samples in Newark peaked at 558 parts per billion, while Flint had lead levels up to 13,000 ppb. On Tuesday, Gov. Chris Christie said, "This is a situation that we're concerned about, but it is not a crisis. But we don't want it to become a crisis."

Allow only a glass half full, or charge more to fill it up? In addressing California's drought, Gov. Jerry Brown allowed communities to use a mix of raising the price of water or place use restrictions. A study by Resources for the Future out on Wednesday found that restricting water use is considerably more effective. By analyzing water use from households in six northern California cities, researchers found that a policy of restricting outdoor water use cut overall demand by 13 percent. Water would have to be 50 percent more expensive to achieve the same reduction, raising annual water bills by $330 for the average household.

LONG ISLAND BEACH VIEWS MAY HAVE WIND TURBINES IN THEM: The ocean off Long Island is prime real estate for wind development, and now the Obama administration is opening the door. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced Wednesday that it would open up 81,000 square miles (an area slightly smaller than Kansas) off the Long Island coast to commercial wind development, POLITICO New York's Scott Waldman reports.

READING GLASSES ON: GREENPEACE: TOP U.S. COAL COMPANIES DEPEND ON PUBLIC LAND: The three largest U.S. coal producers collectively pulled three quarters of their coal production from federal land, according to a report out today from Greenpeace. Peabody Energy, the top U.S. coal producer, extracted 68 percent of its coal from federal land, which was also the source of 83 percent of Arch Coal’s production and 88 percent of Cloud Peak Energy's output. Greenpeace used the Freedom of Information Act to get detailed coal production numbers from each entity.

BRITS DROP OIL AND GAS TAXES: The U.K.'s government will permanently abolish a petroleum revenue tax and also cut a “supplementary charge” for the oil and gas sector in half (from 20 percent to 10 percent), in an effort to help the struggling sector in the North Sea. The announcements came during Chancellor George Osborne’s presentation of the U.K. budget. Osborne also announced he is scrapping a mandatory energy efficiency scheme which called on large public and private sector organizations to report on their carbon emissions, carbon pricing schemes and energy use. Instead, the climate change levy, which taxes large industrial, commercial or agricultural energy users in an effort to promote energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions, will rise from 2019, he said. The government also announced 730 million pounds ($1.04 billion) of funding for offshore wind power auctions out to 2020, and 50 million pounds ($71.3 million) for innovation in energy storage, demand-side response and other smart technologies over the next five years.

About The Author

Eric Wolff covers energy policy and politics. Prior to joining POLITICO in 2015, he covered the EPA for SNL Energy, an electric power trade publication. He started at the New York Sun, but he cut his teeth covering the real estate crisis and the emergence of solar power in San Diego County for the late North County Times, a daily newspaper. He is married and living in Washington, D.C. with twin toddlers. He keeps his head above water.